Tech Notes

E-mail: helpdesk@shakopee.k12.mn.us

Web: Log in to help desk at: https://whd.shakopee.k12.mn.us/

If you need a call-back please add a good number and time to contact you in ticket.

Whenever possible and necessary we may also use remote support tools such as Splashtop to assist you.

Details help! For instance, student name and ID number is useful when submitting a ticket in regards to a student issue. Or letting us know if you already tried common troubleshooting steps such as restarting. We appreciate the detail and it helps speed up the process of resolving an issue.

We would appreciate it if all K-5 teaching staff would complete this survey. The purpose is to get a more complete and nuanced view of how we anticipate using devices in elementary buildings next year. We are looking for consistency where we can find it and to better document our rationale for how and where devices are being used.

Upcoming Projects

• Tech Tools Revamp: We will be redesigning and relaunching the Tech Tools site to better serve our needs. Watch for updates on this project over summer.
• Food Service transactions: All food service payments and transactions will be housed in Infinite Campus next year. RevTrak will be phased out. For families in particular, this reduces the number of systems they need to interact with without sacrificing service.

Ongoing Projects

• Staff MacBook Refresh: We are continuing to reach out to staff who are on the list for a newer MacBook. Please work with your building tech staff to coordinate these updates.
• Device Roll-Ins: We are already planning for device roll-ins and expect to have communications out to buildings within next couple weeks on dates/times and this year's process.

News

• Personnel: Currently have a vacancy for a building tech at High School.
• Google Takeout: Note that Google Takeout functionality has been disabled for staff in order to be compliant with data privacy standards. Departing staff who may need assistance with archiving data should submit a help ticket for assistance.
• Software and Site Subscription Process: Currently finalizing development of a process for requesting software and web-based subscription services. Our current practices are creating confusion about what we have, who can use various services, how accounts and maintained, and even lack good visibility into what we are spending on these services. Accepting these realities and naming the problems are essential to implementing a more efficient, effective, and equitable process.

A common issue brought to tech by parents is confusion about the source of e-mail messages. When the subject line does not indicate a school or sender, this can be confusing, especially if the family has multiple students enrolled in the district. It is very helpful to parents to have some identifying information in the subject line of messages that go out. Consistency is also helpful, since it makes it easier to find and sort messages that are received.

The district's duplicating services have completed the move to District Office. This appears to have gone quite well, but please be proactive with work orders and patient while everything gets "dialed in" in the new space.

You should now be seeing a "phish alert report" icon in Outlook. A full tech tools article is linked below that walks you through how to use it, but the short version is that it is one more option available to you to report potential phishing attempts. I understand how this topic sounds a bit like a broken record sometimes but we continue to see attempts being made to lure staff into clicking on or responding to illicit messages. So, we will continue to look for ways to combat any attempts to compromise our systems.

The majority of the AppleID migration has been completed.

Impact on students

• Students sign in to AppleID on their assigned device using their @shakopeeschools.org account.
• Once signed in, device automatically backs up to iCloud. This will make device replacement and restoration easier.
• Apple Classroom. Better management and ad hoc creation of classes synced to a managed Apple ID

Impact on staff

• Staff sign in to AppleID on their assigned device using their @shakopee.k12.mn.us account.
• The managed AppleID only works for iCloud services, not app store. See the Staff sign-in notes (starting at step 4) for using either a personal AppleID or an alternative district account.
• As with student accounts, the iCloud backup is helpful in restoring a device if it needs to be replaced.

Email: helpdesk@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Website: https://techtools.shakopee.k12.mn.us/
Location: 1200 Shakopee Town Square, Shakopee, MN, USA
Phone: 5100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/shakopeedlc/
Twitter: @ShakoTechDrozd